Employment Aid Programme

Impetus Europe Consulting Group has been engaged by the Maltese Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) to assist in the implementation of the Employment Aid Programme.

Through this scheme employers can receive a subsidy to the wage costs if they hire jobseekers that fit into certain categories. Over 8 million in EU funds are available for this scheme.

Target Groups

The Employment Aid Programme is aimed at jobseekers that are in a disadvantaged situation due to their life circumstances. These persons are:

• youth aged under twenty five years, and are within two years after completing their full-time education, and are unemployed;
  
• persons who have been absent from work for at least two years and who want to re-enter in the labour market;
  
• single persons who are seeking work, but are looking after other persons dependant on them;
  
• persons who left school after secondary school and were made redundant, or given redundancy notice, in the past six months;
  
• persons who are over fifty years old;
  
• persons who have been registering for work for a long time; and
  
• persons with disabilities.
  

The financial assistance will be in the form of a subsidy in the salary of these individuals, as well as in the employer's contribution to the employee's National Insurance. The actual duration varies, ranging from a minimum of 26 weeks to a maximum of 156 weeks as outlined below.



Subsidy

50 per cent of the wage costs plus half the employer's NI (Duration: 26 weeks):

• Any person who is under 25 and is within two years after completing full-time education and who has not previously obtained his or her first regular paid employment. (By first regular paid employment, ETC is taking at least six full-time months of employment).
  
• Any person who wishes to enter or to re-enter working life and who has been absent both from work and from education for at least two years - particularly any person who gave up work on account of the difficulty of reconciling his or her working life and family life.
  
• Any person who has not attained upper secondary level qualifications or equivalent (ISCED Level 3) and who has been made redundant in the past six months or has been served with a redundancy notice of termination of employment.
  
• Any person older than 50 who does not have a job or who is losing his or her job (i.e. has been served with a redundancy notice of termination of employment).
  
• Any long-term, registered unemployed person, i.e. any person who has been unemployed for twelve of the previous 16 months, or six of the previous eight months in the case of persons under 25.
  

50 per cent of the wage costs plus half the employer's NI (Duration: 39 weeks):

• person living as a single adult looking after dependants.
  

75 per cent of the wage costs for the first year and 60% for the second and third year. The subsidy will be offered up to three years or until September 2013 which ever comes first. Subject to this employer is obliged to keep the participant in employment a minimum of a further one year after the subsidy period. (Duration: 156 weeks):

• person who is a registered disabled person and who has a recognised, serious, physical, mental or psychological impairment.)

The subsidy is reimbursed to the employer after the twelfth month from the date of the engagement of each participant enrolled on the Aid Programme and after verification that all conditions have been fulfilled.



How to apply

In order to explain the main features and benefits of the scheme and to explain and assist in the application procedure, Impetus Europe, on behalf of the ETC, offers one-to-one meetings with local employers. These meetings and our assistance are at no cost for the employers.

Applicants will then have to fill in an application form, the staff declaration form, the financial identification form and either a vacancy profile or the recruitment request form. We also assist employers to fill in these forms.

Employers who are interested in the Employment Aid Programme can contact Impetus Europe for more information or to set an appointment for a meeting on 25990683 or send an email at eap@impetuseruope.com.